William Moore

English IV Honors

Mrs. Angela Wilson

Friday, April 27, 2018

LEDs Are the Future of Lighting

Thesis: Compared to conventional lighting, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are the future of

lighting due to their efficiency in maintenance, low electricity costs, versatility, and ecological

friendliness.

I. Introduction
II. Conventional Lighting
III. What are LEDs?

IV. How much do LEDs save in electricity costs?

V. How do LEDs save in maintenance costs?

VI. How are LEDs ecologically friendly?

VII. How are LEDs more versatile than conventional fluorescent light fixtures?

VIII. Conclusion

LEDs Are the Future of Lighting

“LEDs are all around us: In our phones, our cars and even our homes. Any time
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something electronic lights up, there is a good chance that an LED is behind it” (Light-Emitting

Diodes (LEDs)). As electricity is being used for more and more things in society, more efficient

ways of using it are needed to reduce costs and demand. As demand increases, the cost will

increase, so by eliminating the demand for electricity with higher efficiency LEDs, the cost for

electricity does not increase. LEDs have become the platform for all lighting designs, pushing

compact fluorescents towards obsolescence. Compared to conventional lighting, light emitting

diodes (LEDs) are the future of lighting due to their efficiency in maintenance, low electricity

costs, versatility, and ecological friendliness.

Conventional lighting is below average in design and efficiency. Fluorescent lamps are

very common for conventional light, but are mediocre in their productivity and usability because

of their ancient design. They are a glass tube filled with low pressure argon and a tungsten

electrode on each end. They operate by a ballast that regulates the AC power and emits it to the

electrodes. The argon gas in the tube must have ions and electrons added to it for it to be able to

pass current through it. A filament electrode is heated up by the current and it boils off the

electrons into the tube and ionizes the argon gas. The idea for fluorescent lamps has been around

since the 1880’s but was not used commonly until the 1930’s (The Fluorescent Lamp - How It

Works &amp). So, fluorescent lamps have been in use for almost ninety years, therefore with all

of the advancements in technology, a new lighting technique should be fully in place.

Conventional fluorescent fixtures require ballasts for startup and electrical current

control. Ballasts are inefficient because they require a spike of high voltage to get the arc started.

When the lamps are cold, they are harder to start up because the ions have to heat up the filament

and emit electrons. Ballasts often cause the bulb to flicker due to the high frequency and can be

irritating to the human eye. The bulbs take a few seconds to warm up to come on because the
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filament must heat up and ionize the gas. They have a few benefits because the bulbs are

inexpensive, have a reasonable life-span and are readily available. The compact fluorescent

fixtures were satisfactory for indoor lighting for years, but due to demand for more energy

efficient options, LEDs are taking over the lighting industry (The Fluorescent Lamp - How It

Works &amp). Slowly, many people are replacing, converting, and retrofitting their outdated

fluorescent fixtures to LED. As new lights are put up, most people are installing LEDs even

though the initial cost is higher than that of conventional fixtures, the cost savings are

worthwhile.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are the current and developing way of lighting efficiently.

An electrical current passes through a microchip that lights up. The heat produced by LEDs is

absorbed into a heat sink to prevent performance issues such as slow start up or flickering. The

heat fritters away into the surrounding area. Heat management by lights is called thermal

management and is the single most important factor in successful performance throughout the

life of the light and light longevity (“Learn About LED Lighting”). Being engineered to remove

the heat created by the light, the LED is much more equipped to stay cool and not burn itself up

as compared to a compact fluorescent that radiates more heat than it can withstand, reducing its

life expectancy. The LED can withstand more variable temperatures, in comparison to compact

fluorescents, due to its much more advanced thermal management system.

LEDs are much less likely to be blown out by improper installation. Because LEDs are

diodes, they only allow current flow in one direction. The LED has two leads for current flow.

The anode, the positive side, has a longer lead and feeds the cathode with current. The cathode is

the negative side and receives current from the anode. In a LED, the more current fed to it, the

brighter it becomes. The LED must dissipate the amount of power that it is allowed to draw. If
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too much power is given to it, it will destroy itself in an attempt to dissipate that amount of

power. In order to prevent this self destruction, resistors are added to limit the flow of electrons

and protect the LED (Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)). Compact fluorescents must be installed

correctly or else they will blow out upon initial startup. LEDs with a resistor, will not blow out

and can save on time and money when replacing a blown light due to improper installation.

The greatest benefit to light emitting diodes is how much they save in electricity costs

and usage. Incandescent bulbs last on average 1,000 hours and compact fluorescents last about

8,000 hours. In comparison, a similar LED would last about 25,000 hours. Although LEDs are

more costly, the energy saved on the electric bill is worthwhile over the the lifetime of the LED.

A sixty watt and 800 lumen incandescent is equivalent to a ten watt and 800 lumen LED. It

would cost $360 to run that sixty watt incandescent at six hours a day for twenty years. It would

only cost seventy-two dollars to run the LED for twenty years at six hours a day. So the ten

dollar LED would save you $279 over twenty years over buying a one dollar incandescent. If

you were to replace twenty bulbs in your house, you could save about $5,580 over twenty years

(“LED Light Bulbs Vs. CFL Light Bulbs: Which Is Best for Me?”). By just replacing the bulbs

in a house, thousands of dollars could be saved. Imagine replacing all of the bulbs in the world,

how much electricity savings would occur. So LEDs should be a no brainer because of how

much they could save in electricity costs alone. LEDs have a higher initial cost but the return on

investment is worthwhile.

As LEDs develop, their efficiency will only increase as the technology becomes more

advanced. LEDs currently produce light approximately ninety percent more efficiently than

traditional incandescent light bulbs (“Learn About LED Lighting”). So, nine LEDs use about the

same amount of electricity as one incandescent bulb. “By 2027, widespread use of LEDs could
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save about 348 TWh (Terawatt hours) (compared to no LED use) of electricity: This is the

equivalent annual electrical output of 44 large electric power plants (1000 megawatts each), and

a total savings of more than $30 billion at today’s electricity prices” (“LED Lighting”). To be

able to save thirty billion dollars by just replacing lights is tremendous. Convincing all

contractors and homeowners to install LEDs would be necessary because many of contractors

and homeowners are too cheap and frugal to spend the money for the initial investment to save

money over time. By replacing an incandescent light bulb with an LED, there is potential for

$850 savings. An LED will cost about ninety dollars for 50,000 hours of usage with no

replacement costs because of the longevity of the LED. An incandescent would cost around $940

for 50,000 hours of usage and having to replace it about thirty-nine times (“LED Electricity

Savings”). By replacing a bulb with an LED, one would save a lot of time dealing with

replacements and going to buy replacements and also several hundred dollars in bulb and

electricity costs.

Replacing light bulbs becomes tedious and redundant when compact fluorescents and

incandescents burn out. LEDs do not typically burn out or fail unlike compact fluorescents and

incandescents because they are a diode and just pass a current through its leads. Conventional

light bulbs fade upon installation and burn out quickly in comparison to LEDs (“Learn About

LED Lighting”). The costs that are not typically factored in in savings calculations are those

involved in going to purchase bulbs. One would have to use fuel to drive to the store and spend

valuable time to go and get bulbs. Time is money, so the time spent to go and get the bulbs would

not be factored into the cost savings of LEDs. LEDs and all lights experience lumen

depreciation. LED lumen depreciation is much slower than that of conventional lights. That

meaning, the brightness of the light slowly fades. Because LEDs never actually blow out, the
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LED lifespan is recognized as when the light output has decreased by thirty percent (“Learn

About LED Lighting”). Therefore, when an LED has reached its maximum life expectancy, it

would still be burning, but just with a lower lumen output. So, the LED would not have to be

replaced urgently unlike that of a traditional bulb if it were needed on a regular basis. Another

major factor as to why LEDs are much more effective when maintaining them is that they do not

require a ballast like that of a traditional fixture. So when a traditional fixture stops working and

spending the time and money to replace the bulbs does not work, more time and money is

required to buy a ballast and pay someone to replace it. With most electricians charging

anywhere from forty to one hundred dollars per hour, the cost to replace a ballast could be over

one hundred dollars, when a new LED fixture would likely cost less than that (“How Much Does

an Electrician Cost?”). So hiring an electrician to just replace a ballast and bulbs in a fixture is

not cost effective when one could pay them to replace the fixture with an LED and save on

electricity costs and never have to pay anything in maintenance costs again for it. LEDs are the

future to eliminating all lighting maintenance costs because they require no costs for electricians

other than installation and many people can install light fixtures themselves.

Light emitting diodes are more ecologically friendly than traditional fixtures due to many

factors. By installing an LED fixture, there is no waste in replacement bulbs that take up landfill

space and emit harmful gases when broken. Compact fluorescents contain small amounts of

mercury and are the most common bulbs used today, which means that they would be the most

common broken bulbs and so mercury is being released and absorbed into the air that is being

breathed. There is also no chance of accidents happening that bust them like there is with

traditional bulbs. Also, broken bulbs have the potential to cut someone that is transporting them

or whoever accidentally busts them. LED fixtures are also smaller than traditional fixtures so
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when the light is no longer needed the space taken up by the fixture in the landfill is smaller also.

Widespread use of LEDs by 2027 would save about forty four large electrical power plants that

would not be needed (“LED Lighting”). The amount of waste created by forty four power plants

would be huge with all of the machines, wiring, gears, and building itself, along with the daily

pollutants created through everyday tasks. Replacing lights with LEDs seems like a small task,

yet it would eliminate a large amount of carbon footprint on the world by developed countries

that are constantly pouring pollutants into the world. Consider the quantity of light fixtures in

just one developed city and think about how many bulbs that will be used in a year and how

many would be used over 20 years and the pile of burned out bulbs that would create in the

landfill. Imagine how much space would be saved in the landfill and the amount of mercury that

would not be emitted into the atmosphere from them.

LEDs are much more versatile than traditional lights. There are many types of LEDs.

RGB LEDs are three in one and are controlled by color intensity. RGB stands for red, green, and

blue and these are the colors of each LED. Each color has a different intensity based upon the

color that is needed to be produced. These are typically four pin bulbs that have a lead for each

color that are cathodes and a common or neutral that is the anode. These RGB LEDs are used for

many applications that the color changes, like television screens. A flashing LED is used without

a controller unlike one that would be needed for a flashing traditional fixture. It is operated by an

integrated circuit that controls the flashing. The flashing LED is much more equipped to

withstand constant off and on unlike a traditional compact fluorescent that burns out from

flickering because of the constant changes in temperature. A SMD, or a Surface Mount Device, is

a small LED that uses pads to be mounted unlike that of a normal LED that is mounted on legs.

This allows for the LED to be mounted in small places like on small handheld devices or
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indicator lights. A high power LED is one that can dissipate more than one watt. These are used

for outdoor lighting like those made by CREE. These are much better than the large, bulky

fixture that would be the comparison of a traditional fixture with the same output. Infrared LEDs

do something that no other traditional light can even compare to. It can send small pieces of

information in the form of visible light. This is commonly used in television remotes for them to

communicate with the television set. Ultraviolet light, or UV light, is used to make certain

materials glow or fluoresce. This is used by forensic scientists and those in the medical field

when making examinations. Traditional fixtures are available for doing so, but not to the same

extent and without the versatility of having these lights anywhere and mobile (Light-Emitting

Diodes (LEDs)). By having so many options for LEDs, the possibilities for light sources are

endless. When there is an application where light is needed, there is a type of LED that is

suitable and effectively emits the correct amount of light.

LEDs come in all forms and fashions and can be made into any configuration needed.

Currently they are made into the shape of compact fluorescents so that a retrofit of conventional

light bulbs to an LED bulb in the same fixture can be completed. Currently, the most common

LEDs used in homes are either for can lights or those that screw into lamps that appear in similar

shape to a regular compact fluorescent and incandescents. Tube lights are also available in LED

that are T5, T8, and T12 that allow one to retain the current traditional fixture. Most LED

fixtures have the LEDs built into the fixture so the entire fixture is the LED and works together

with that LED. For nontraditional bulbs, hybrid approaches are available so that they can too be

replaced with LEDs (“Learn About LED Lighting”). With LEDs having so many options, there

are more ways to limit the costs and create effectiveness of the LED conversions so that they are

more cost conducive and the consumers are more likely to change their fixtures over if they have
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options for LEDs because the LEDs become more trustworthy and reasonable, therefore

consumers are more likely to be convinced to use them.

LEDs are directional, meaning they expel light in one way. So, LED fixtures are typically

engineered to reflect light in all directions or multiple LEDs are set up so that there is one

pointing in each direction. Compact fluorescents and incandescents expel light and heat in all

directions. So, if light is only needed in one direction, shields and shades have to be put in place

to block off the excess light (“Learn About LED Lighting”). The luminous intensity of LEDs is

higher than that of conventional lights due to them being directional. Luminous intensity

measures how bright an LED can get by millicandela or mcd. Higher intensity fixtures require

less fixtures for the same amount of light, therefore, savings can be made in having less LED

fixtures as compared to numerous conventional fixtures (Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)). With

LEDs controlling light production and light direction effectively, planning and usage of them is

more effective in how that they are used because they are more predictable.

Light emitting diodes are developing quickly and are on track to take over the lighting

industry. LEDs are more efficient, cost effective, versatile, and require less work in taking care of

them from installation to removal. LEDs make it easy to control your home lighting from a

smartphone or the internet. Smart Home uses sensors and commands from the smartphone to

turn on and off and adjust intensity. Smart bulbs can adjust their brightness, color temperature

and color, all by the push of the button from wherever the smartphone is. With WiFi built in, the

bulbs are more plug and play than they would seem and allow for versatility in installation and

usage (Blank). With ever developing technology, control is now given to lighting through LEDs,

the possibility for lights, light controls, and light patterns is infinite. LEDs have infinite

possibilities of what can be done with them to light up the world in the near future.
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Works Cited

Blank, Eric. “LEDs Are Better And Here's Why.” The Smart Cave, TheSmartCave, 17 May

2017, thesmartcave.com/led-vs-cfl/.

“How Much Does An Electrician Cost?” ElectricianAuthority.com,

ElectricianAuthority.com, 2 June 2017, www.electricianauthority.com/how-much-does-an-

electrician-cost/.

“Learn About LED Lighting.” Learn About LED Lights | ENERGY STAR,

www.energystar.gov/products/lighting_fans/light_bulbs/learn_about_led_bulbs.

“LED Electricity Savings.” Flexfire LEDs, www.flexfireleds.com/pages/-LED-electricity-

savings.html.

“LED Light Bulbs Vs. CFL Light Bulbs: Which Is Best for Me?” EarthLED.com, 5 Feb.

2015, www.earthled.com/blogs/light-2-0-the-earthled-blog-led-lighting-news-tips-

reviews/35906628-led-light-bulbs-vs-cfl-light-bulbs-which-is-best-for-me.
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“LED Lighting.” Department of Energy, www.energy.gov/energysaver/save-electricity-

and-fuel/lighting-choices-save-you-money/led-lighting.

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/light-emitting-diodes-leds.

The Fluorescent Lamp - How It Works & History,

www.edisontechcenter.org/Fluorescent.html.